July 10, 1997
The Violent Femmes' debut album is adolescence personified - doing drugs, getting laid, and spewing venom on everything that doesn't provide instant gratification. "Blister in the Sun" is the obvious hit, and I love that junior high dances still find kids singing gleefully along with the line: "When I'm out walking I strut my stuff, and I'm so strung out/I'm high as a kite, I just might stop you check you out." Heroin-pop. Dig it.
The most subversive thing about the Femmes is exactly that - dark, bitter lyrics tied to radio-friendly, accessible songcraft. The trio of Femmes play acoustic instruments with the raw, careless fervor of punk, while Gordon Gano whines, moans and generally bitches about how he can't get into his girlfriend's pants. Ah, youth.
It's amazing that these three kids can make so much noise without being plugged in. "Kiss Off" and "Add it Up" in particular achieve a psychotic grace with their singalong choruses and loose, free-associative soloing. Victor DeLorenzo's formidable drumming underpins Gano's twitchy rhythms and solid songwriting, but it's really Brian Ritchie's kinetic, melodic bass that is the musical centerpiece of the album. The flat wound vibrations of his standing bass guitar gives Violent Femmes its razor teeth.
The slower tracks are equally strong. "Gone Daddy Gone" sports an oddly tense xylophone run, and "Please Do Not Go" is instantly catchy, but it's really the angry, frenzied tunes that captured the imagination of black-clad '80's teens who thought Duran Duran were full of crap. Turns out they were right. The anti-establishment anthems of Violent Femmes are as much dangerous fun now as they were 15 years ago
- Jared O'Connor
Heroin Pop